America’s Best Silverware for China

Until recently, besides the fact that it had four times the area and population of the United States, China didn’t bring much to the table. Not enough to earn itself the title of “The World’s Second Superpower.” Most of this year’s statistics concerning the progress made are also showing no major shift from the giant that the U.S. is considered to be today.

However, thanks to the “Chinese drop” efforts, China seems to have been clearly signed up after America and can undoubtedly crave for the empty seat that the USSR left upon its fall during 1989 to 1991. Nobody can steal China’s title of second best — not the former superpowers, such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Japan, and surely not the up-and-coming India or Brazil.

Despite the fact that it had a GDP of $5.88 trillion in 2010, compared to the U.S.’ $14.25 trillion, and that it spent 6.7 times less money on defense than the U.S., China could definitely be a challenge for America, in more ways than one.

During the time when George W. Bush was only able to offer Hu Jintao an embarrassing lunch during his visit in April 2006, China was still among the four or five countries right behind the United States. Now that Obama has invited the same Hu for dinner, this time with silverware and over 200 renowned guests, China is sitting in a position where it could only be offered “a healthy competition, promoting innovation and competitiveness on both sides.”

That is to say the American companies should have the same freedom on the Chinese market that the Chinese companies have on American ones. Secondly, Obama’s call for respecting international norms can be read as a recommendation for the Chinese geniuses to stop buying American innovations – even though some might belong to Chinese-born U.S. citizens in American universities – and stop taking them apart and putting them back together, with lower quality and less money.

One of the few things that Beijing cannot get its hands on – for now at least – are the top notch military technologies, which neither the Russians nor the Europeans are letting out because of Washington’s pressure to maintain an embargo on their weapons exports. Even so, whether it will be the Europeans who give in or the Chinese who make their own leap of progress, China’s arming as a worthy superpower is just a matter of time. By no means is that to say that the U.S.’ main creditor is declaring war. Even if that were the case, a possible war would most likely be in favor of China, which could easily take the shirt of the U.S.’ back. Nonetheless, Washington still keeps its money-printing press handy, meaning it would not be completely vulnerable.

However, a total economic war seems to be unlikely, if we were to judge by the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine, which was used during the Cold War to keep the enemy at bay, even though each side possessed a nuclear arsenal able to destroy the entire planet.

Nonetheless, should the two states come to realize that the gods called “economic progress” and “consumption” – which form the foundation of both the American dream and the Chinese Five-Year Plan – are alienating their fans, we may very well be on the verge of a global catastrophe, making the crisis of 2008 a simple preview of what is to come.